Yunel Escobar: Ranking the Infielder Among AL East Shortstops

With spring training officially underway, the shortstop position will be the site of open competition for the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays.

While each team will likely implement some sort of platoon strategy to kick off the season, the inside track for the starting jobs belong to Mike Aviles and Sean Rodriguez, respectively.

If those two can cinch up starting roles, the AL East will see J.J. Hardy (Baltimore), Mike Aviles (Boston), Derek Jeter (New York), Sean Rodriguez (Tampa Bay) and Yunel Escobar (Toronto) take the field for their clubs on opening day.

Here, we will conduct a comparative analysis of the starting five to see which squads hold a positional advantage over their AL East competitors at shortstop.

The Blue Jays representative, Yunel Escobar, is looking to climb the ranks after a successful 2011 campaign.